The 1901 Cookbook Archive

Section IV: Accompaniments to Soup — Croutons, Quenelles, Dumplings and Little Pies

Complete English translation of the historical introduction and notes in Section IV (soup accompaniments), with the complete original recipe index in English.

Complete historical chapter notes in English: The translated headings, introductory notes, proportions and methods below follow the printed Russian edition in their original sequence. The English recipes appear after these notes. Historical instructions are documentary material and must not be mistaken for current safety guidance.

The quantities are intended for six to eight people.

For nine to twelve, multiply by 1½; for thirteen to fifteen, by two; for sixteen to eighteen, by 2½; and for nineteen to twenty-four people, by three.

This entire section is also suitable for vegetarians, except for some meat fillings.

Little Croutons and Toasts.

Note. For any kind of crouton, use stale Polish-style flour bread rolls; the so-called French roll is unsuitable for them.

Meatballs.

Fish and Meat Quenelles.

Note. For fish quenelles use only fish with flesh that binds well, few bones and little fat, such as zander, pike or perch.

For meat quenelles, not only tender portions (fillets) are used, but also meat cut from legs and wings. Although it is stringy, any pieces not crushed during pounding will remain in the sieve when the mass is strained.
Always use raw meat.
First chop it finely, then pass it twice through a meat grinder and pound it in a mortar, adding a little cream.
Rub the pounded meat through a sieve.
Add the salt only after straining, since it makes the meat stick together and therefore hinders quick passage through the sieve.
Quenelles can be shaped in different ways according to their intended use:
For broth, drop them from a teaspoon; for garnishing, use a tablespoon. If the quenelle is to be cut into slices when served, roll the mixture into a thick sausage shape, wrap it in a clean cloth and tie it.
When dropping quenelles from a teaspoon or tablespoon, fill the spoon. With a second spoon of the same size, dipped each time in warm water, cut away the upper half of the quenelle along its whole length, then shake off the remainder with that spoon into boiling salted water or strained broth.
Always cook them in a separate small saucepan, in strained broth or salted water.
Cook them in an open saucepan at the edge of the stove, never letting the liquid boil vigorously, or the quenelles will fall apart. Cook until they float and become firm. The author suggests that a cooked quenelle is ready when it does not break apart when touched with a finger. Cooking takes approximately ten to fifteen minutes. Carefully lift quenelles shaped with a spoon onto a platter using a perforated spoon; once cool, transfer to a bowl, pour hot broth over them or use them to garnish another dish.
If a quenelle has been cooked as a sausage wrapped in cloth, lower it into cold salted water when cooked. When it has cooled and become firm, carefully move it to a platter, unwrap and remove the cloth, cut the quenelle into even diagonal slices and put them into a soup tureen or use them for another purpose.
The salted water used for cooking quenelles may be used the following day for shchi, borscht and other soups; in that case do not add more salt.
Whatever is stuffed with quenelle mixture is filled with the mixture raw; when used in this way it is called forcemeat.

When beginning to cook quenelles, first drop in one as a trial; if the mixture lacks anything, add it.

Olives and Tomatoes, Cereals and Noodles.

Roots and Vegetables for Broth and Soups in General.

Note. Besides the principal roots that simmer in broth together with a bundle of greens and are mostly discarded, other vegetables and roots are added to the broth and served with the soup.

Vegetables and roots served with broth and other soups include carrots, turnips, rutabagas, parsley root, celery, asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, fresh peas in their pods, shelled fresh peas, dried peas, green peas, white beans and others. Cook them all in a separate enamel saucepan. Some take longer and must be started first, but the longest cooking time should be an hour. Thus the firmest vegetables should start cooking an hour before serving, although peeling, blanching (bringing once to a boil in water) and cutting them must be done before that final hour. Do not cook them too long, as they lose their aroma, and do not keep peeled vegetables in cold water for a long time either.

Prepare all the above vegetables for broth in the following way.

Roots for Garnishing Broth.

Note. In general, for additional turned roots to garnish broth No. 1 or No. 3 for six to eight people, use no less than one and no more than 1½ pounds of roots and vegetables, as desired.

This broth can be varied almost without limit by serving it with two, three or as many as eight different vegetables, as described for broth No. 1, namely:

Dumplings.

Note. Dumplings should always be cooked in a separate shallow saucepan so as not to cloud the broth. Their batter should be a little thicker than waffle batter, so if it is too thick, thin it with a spoonful of milk. Always drop the batter into boiling strained broth or salted water as follows: dip a teaspoon into cold water and scoop up half a teaspoonful of

batter; drop it into boiling broth or salted water and shake it off. Quickly scoop up another half-teaspoonful and continue until all the batter is used. Simmer gently, always under a lid, so the dumplings expand without falling apart. They cook for about ten minutes; when they rise to the surface, they are ready. Carefully transfer them with a perforated spoon to the soup tureen and pour over the regular strained broth. For a family meal, the strained broth in which the dumplings cooked may also be poured into the tureen; it should not be used at a formal dinner, since certain dumplings make it cloudy. When a dumpling recipe says 'one or two eggs', this means one is sufficient if it is large, while two are needed if they are small.

Eggs.

Ushki, or Little Ear-Shaped Dumplings.

Note. The dough for ushki is the same as for noodles. Roll it very thinly and cut into small squares, making up to thirty-five. Brush the edges with egg white, put a teaspoonful of filling on each, pinch the edges into triangles, then join the points. Fry in melted butter or Provençal oil in a copper sauté pan, not an iron frying pan, where the fat burns quickly and the pastries turn dark. After frying, place them on absorbent paper; once drained, drop them into borscht or mushroom soup immediately before serving, not earlier, or they will become soggy. Better still, put them in when the soup tureen is already on the table. Ushki are made with meat or mushroom filling.

Pelmeni.

Note. Pelmeni use the same dough as noodles: one egg or two yolks, 2½ spoonfuls of water, half a teaspoon of salt and half a pound of flour. Roll it out very thinly, add filling, fold over the edges after brushing them with beaten egg using a feather, and cut out little pies of the size specified as half a glass. Pinch the seams firmly. Drop into boiling salted water, using two teaspoons of salt for every three glasses of water, or preferably into boiling strained broth. Immediately move to the edge of the stove and cook gently without boiling until they rise to the surface. Transfer with a perforated spoon to a soup tureen over dill, and pour in the regular strained broth along with the cooking broth strained through a napkin. In the latter case, take care not to add too much salt.

B. Little Pies.

Note. Some little pies are baked in the oven, others are fried directly in deep fat, and others are first dipped in batter. They are served attractively arranged on an oblong platter covered with a clean, evenly folded, starched napkin. The size of the platter should always suit the quantity of pies. The pies may be sprinkled with fried parsley or framed on both sides with sprigs of fresh parsley.

Dough for Little Pies.

Puff-Pastry Little Pies.

Fillings for Little Pies Made with Short Dough and Yeast Dough.

Note. The same fillings are used for all little pies made with short pastry, Nos. 308–310; sour-cream dough, No. 311; chopped pastry, No. 312; or yeast dough, Nos. 315–321, as follows:

Fried Doughnuts or Puffs.

Yeast-Dough Little Pies Fried in Deep Fat.

Note. Dough for these little pies must always be yeast dough, and the pies are made oblong.

Vatrushki (Small Filled Pastries).

Little Pies and Loaves Made from Pancakes.

Little Bread-Roll Pies.

Note. These little pies are made from purchased stale enriched rolls, oblong or even round, including the inexpensive rolls from which round rusks are made. Cut a lid from the top with a very sharp knife, then carefully scoop out the crumb with a teaspoon. Butter the inside of each roll, fill it, replace its own lid, place on a greased iron baking sheet, butter the whole top, sprinkle with breadcrumbs or grated cheese, and put into the oven for a quarter of an hour just before serving.

For six to eight diners take at least fifteen to eighteen rolls, choosing those that are less browned, because they will brown again in the oven.

Little Pies in Tin Molds.

Forcemeat in Shells.

Croquettes.

Croutons.

Porridges Served with Broth, Shchi and Borscht.

Croutons Made from Cereals, Another Method.

Note. First cook a porridge without butter, place it on a large, deep, oblong platter moistened with water and spread it evenly with a wet knife into a layer as thick as a finger. Cover with the clean, wet underside of another platter of the same shape, place a weight on top and let it cool. Cut out crescent shapes or medium-sized diagonal squares and fry in hot butter in a copper sauté pan. When browned on one side, turn and fry the other. Transfer to a sieve lined with absorbent paper; after draining, arrange neatly on a hot serving dish and serve.

Numbered recipes in English

The original chapter lists 163 unique numbered recipes. The following links open their English translations, in the original printed order.